WoW is a subscription game - why employ scummy F2P tactics?

[Soon-TM]

Adults understand that they dont need to buy anything from the store to play the game. Adults understand that by not buying anything from the store it doesn't prevent them from enjoying every aspect of the game. Adults understand having mounts or other nonsense in the store is irrelevant.

Become an adult.

Adults also understand that having a cash shop in a B2P+fee game is predatory, no matter if other companies are doing the same. See, that's how the "no true Scotsman" thing works.

[Daymanmb]

As someone who has been playing pre boost the quaility of little Timmy’s play hasn’t drastically gone down at all. People who don’t want to or can’t learn how to play properly won’t do so just because they leveled instead of boosted.

Did you just gatekeep your anecdotal opinion? If you dont think theres a stark contrast to gaining abilities and talents progressively and learning how to use them as you level, and getting all of your abilities and talents at once, is completely different, we're at a point where we have to agree to disagree. Youre either high as fuck or in denial...

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Did you just gatekeep your anecdotal opinion? If you dont think theres a stark contrast to gaining abilities and talents progressively and learning how to use them as you level, and getting all of your abilities and talents at once, is completely different, we're at a point where we have to agree to disagree. Youre either high as fuck or in denial...

Wow isn’t a complicated game the difference between getting frost lance after you spent a few levels spamming frost bolt and getting them at the same time is minisucal. Any one who wants to learn there class and play it well will do so with out without leveling and any one who doesn’t care or isn’t capable of learning there class won’t change just from leveling.

[Kyphael]

I don't even care, it's optional to buy anyway, they're not making me purchase anything. I just wish they'd own up to their greed and put some cool shit on the store instead of the same old crappy mounts and uninspired battle pets. You'd think an art team would be able to come up with more cool shit.

[manypillars]

Yes, it looks like paid boosts are going to sell less with SL "revamped" levelling. I can only guess that they really aren't selling a lot as of now, or Blizzard would have never given up the revenue. Now, if transfers were slashed by 60/70%...

I suspect tokens outsell everything else since they can be used for buying anything else (unless I'm mistaken, I haven't played much since WoD). Or maybe not considering the brutosaur FOMO thing.

[dope_danny]

Same as every other game that does it: idiots/whales voted with their wallets to say its okay.

[Jetstream]

Wait, OP got banned for this post?

He's absolutely right, you know. The only reason publishers like Activision, 2K, Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, Jagex, etc still throw microtransactions and cash shops into fully priced AAA games is because people will still sheepishly buy into that crap. This is the future of gaming and as consumers, you all enabled them to do this. I can only hope that regulators around the world catch up to these scummy tactics and start banning loot boxes and cash shops entirely.

No. The first post in this thread hasn’t been infracted. He got banned for something else.

If he’s been banned for this, the thread would’ve been locked.

[Exkrementor]

and what in the world makes you think that has any thing to do with boost?

So I responded to your post which was a respond to my post. I have to assume that you have read my original post that was about 3 sentences long. But yet here I am wondering why you ask stupid questions about something that is not even my opinion.

Or allow me to ask you something instead:
Why exactly do you think that Blizzard hate puppies so much? Are you crazy? There is no evidence for that. Please elaborate.

[bloodykiller86]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

how exactly does it damage anything? The game is completely non-f2p or p2w. Nothing in the store will give you anything to give you an advantage and it doesn't count towards any in game achievements. Theyre all cosmetic. This is probably the best approach they could have taken and you can completely ignore it! so what does it matter?

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Because money...obviously.

[liberaet]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

I have been thinking about it as well for several years already, but that's just how scummy ActivisionBlizzard got. And they will continue as long as people pay for it.

- - - Updated - - -

how exactly does it damage anything? The game is completely non-f2p or p2w. Nothing in the store will give you anything to give you an advantage and it doesn't count towards any in game achievements. Theyre all cosmetic. This is probably the best approach they could have taken and you can completely ignore it! so what does it matter?

So selling cosmetics is fine nowadays? I remember times like 15 years ago when cosmetics were given for achieving something in game. I guess some folks would accept anything these days without realizing how good things could have been.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

So I responded to your post which was a respond to my post. I have to assume that you have read my original post that was about 3 sentences long. But yet here I am wondering why you ask stupid questions about something that is not even my opinion.

Or allow me to ask you something instead:
Why exactly do you think that Blizzard hate puppies so much? Are you crazy? There is no evidence for that. Please elaborate.

Did you some how forget that we were discussing how boost hurt the game? Your first response to me was this.

It hurts the game when Blizzard makes the leveling hard and long and boring on purpose to sell more boosts which you could make a case for these days. But they promise to make leveling better in shadowlands so I am like 50/50 on that.

I pointed out that they didn’t make it long or hard so you brought up the spread of ability’s which I then pointed out has nothing to do with boost.

[rhorle]

So selling cosmetics is fine nowadays? I remember times like 15 years ago when cosmetics were given for achieving something in game. I guess some folks would accept anything these days without realizing how good things could have been.

Vanilla had a CE. TCG loot cards which gave you cosmetics for buying another product entirely. Mt. Dew promotion to get a cosmetic. These things have existed for years. Its not about "these days" its simply about it not being that big of a deal.

- - - Updated - - -

Adults also understand that having a cash shop in a B2P+fee game is predatory, no matter if other companies are doing the same. See, that's how the "no true Scotsman" thing works.

If all gaming is predatory then it really isn't that big of a deal. Free to play games often have cash shops, subscriptions, and more road blocks designed just to require you to pay. There is nothing wrong about a subscription game having the same. If both are wrong and predatory then there is no real reason to single out one gaming model as predatory.

[Sinaa]

I think the shop was okay up until now, however in BFA armor sets obtainable in game look absolutely terrible, for the first time I might add and here we are with SL preorders bringing the first beautiful armor set added to the game since Legion, not so subtly hinting armor sets coming to the store soon. It's always the same argument, "It's just cosmetics, let the whales support the game". However I think the moment the the store has more good things than the game, it's a real problem. GW2 was perhaps even more of a fashion game than WoW for the first few years, but Arena Net completely killed in game rewards with the store..

[Lorgar Aurelian]

So selling cosmetics is fine nowadays? I remember times like 15 years ago when cosmetics were given for achieving something in game. I guess some folks would accept anything these days without realizing how good things could have been.

While not quite 15 years old I’d say the shop is better then the real world loot boxes they used to sell with the trading card packs for mounts and pets.

[Bhanzai]

Adults also understand that having a cash shop in a B2P+fee game is predatory, no matter if other companies are doing the same. See, that's how the "no true Scotsman" thing works.

You clearly do not understand the concept of predatory. You do not get in game spam about the cash shop. You do not get in game messages about what you can purchase in the shop. You do not get popups that you have to constantly click through regarding the shop. So no, WoWs cash shop in particular is no way a predatory thing.

You have one small button that you can completely ignore (and most custom UI's do ignore it).

I play this game. I might click on the cash button once a month, more out of curiosity to see if any pets or mounts have been added since the last time I checked it. I also have the ability to not click it.

See, its amazing what having the choice can accomplish.

[bloodykiller86]

I have been thinking about it as well for several years already, but that's just how scummy ActivisionBlizzard got. And they will continue as long as people pay for it.

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So selling cosmetics is fine nowadays? I remember times like 15 years ago when cosmetics were given for achieving something in game. I guess some folks would accept anything these days without realizing how good things could have been.

Cosmetics are still given in plentiful amounts in game so i have zero to complain about. Also the market has moved a certain way and as a company, which exists solely to make money not make you feel good, they took the most sensible approach unlike many other companies. There's no lootboxes, no p2w crap, no nothing. Its just direct buy stuff that you CAN BUY WITH GOLD! So if you were good enough at making gold there would be a zero cost to you to purchase these items.

[Justpassing]

I personally haven't kept up with 14 fucking pages of nonsense but has anyone brought up FF yet? Oh wait that's ok beacuse you can buy panties for your catgirl

[bloodykiller86]

You clearly do not understand the concept of predatory. You do not get in game spam about the cash shop. You do not get in game messages about what you can purchase in the shop. You do not get popups that you have to constantly click through regarding the shop. So no, WoWs cash shop in particular is no way a predatory thing.

You have one small button that you can completely ignore (and most custom UI's do ignore it).

I play this game. I might click on the cash button once a month, more out of curiosity to see if any pets or mounts have been added since the last time I checked it. I also have the ability to not click it.

See, its amazing what having the choice can accomplish.

exactly! ugh its so simple to understand this and blizz made this in a way that is unlike pretty much every store in the market. its only cosmetics, no p2w, not needed for anything in game, not loot boxes etc. Its just direct buy items that you can purchase with gold if you wanted to not pay money.

[Bhanzai]

exactly! ugh its so simple to understand this and blizz made this in a way that is unlike pretty much every store in the market. its only cosmetics, no p2w, not needed for anything in game, not loot boxes etc. Its just direct buy items that you can purchase with gold if you wanted to not pay money.

Seems like there are a lot of emotionally unstable people who don't have the ability to think critically.

I have a membership to a gym that I only play basketball at. Every time I go play basketball I see notices about extra events like yoga that require an extra fee. I should go to management and complain about their predatory scheme about getting members to pay extra for some hot girls in yoga pants!